So yes, this is the first time I have actually updated this page in oh...say...a month (or two). Thanks to Katrina for keeping everyone updated for me! On Monday, our team will be headed out to Mbozi southwest of Mbeya in southwestern Tanzania for an 8 day homestay in village homes. It is harvest time here, and hopefully we will be able to head into the fields and be able to assist in this important activity. We will be staying with the Nyiha people, a Bantu tribe who are mainly agriculturally focused in the mountains between Mbeya and Lake Malawi. In the days after our homestay, we will be heading south to the shores of Lake Malawi for a few days of relaxing and hiking in the mountains around the area.
Upon returning to Masumbo, Melissa Dilworth (our nurse) and I will be heading north to Dodoma (22 April), Kondoa, and Arusha. There she will meet a short term AIM medical missions team, and I will continue on through Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Parks to Nassa, an AIM mission station on the shores of Lake Victoria northeast of Mwanza. Dr. Arensen spent part of his childhood here, and I will be staying with Mrs. Dilworth, Melissa's mom, and the Arensen's good friend. There, I will be able to spend a few days visiting the Nassa Bible College run by AIM, and starting to get a little bit of a feel for one way that Christian education is done in Tanzania.
It is easy here to catch a vision of the people I am surrounded by. Bwana Jon and Dave Moyer (who works with WCS) are both very much visionaries. I find myself daily inspired and convicted by their passions. Maybe it is not that I am feeling a call to a specific task here. I think that daily I am catching more of a holistic passion for this place. When we talk about theological issues in East Africa, I am inspired. When we talk about ecological/conservation issues in East Africa, I want to do something. When we talk about the broad corruption of government systems in East Africa and the siphoning of international aid money into the pockets of corrupt officials, I am enraged. It must be that I am developing a holistic passion for the people here, for the environment here, for the way that East Africa is relating to America and for the way that America relates to East Africa. Some days I am encouraged; some days I am deflated. I am continuing to learn daily. It is an inspiring and humbling process.
This is probably the last chance I will have to update Ukingo ya hadithi yangu until I return home on May 3. Thanks to all for travelling with me through this medium. Thank you all for your prayers. Thanks for Katrina for keeping everyone updated when I couldn't. I look forward to all the reunions to come. Blessings.
Upon returning to Masumbo, Melissa Dilworth (our nurse) and I will be heading north to Dodoma (22 April), Kondoa, and Arusha. There she will meet a short term AIM medical missions team, and I will continue on through Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Parks to Nassa, an AIM mission station on the shores of Lake Victoria northeast of Mwanza. Dr. Arensen spent part of his childhood here, and I will be staying with Mrs. Dilworth, Melissa's mom, and the Arensen's good friend. There, I will be able to spend a few days visiting the Nassa Bible College run by AIM, and starting to get a little bit of a feel for one way that Christian education is done in Tanzania.
It is easy here to catch a vision of the people I am surrounded by. Bwana Jon and Dave Moyer (who works with WCS) are both very much visionaries. I find myself daily inspired and convicted by their passions. Maybe it is not that I am feeling a call to a specific task here. I think that daily I am catching more of a holistic passion for this place. When we talk about theological issues in East Africa, I am inspired. When we talk about ecological/conservation issues in East Africa, I want to do something. When we talk about the broad corruption of government systems in East Africa and the siphoning of international aid money into the pockets of corrupt officials, I am enraged. It must be that I am developing a holistic passion for the people here, for the environment here, for the way that East Africa is relating to America and for the way that America relates to East Africa. Some days I am encouraged; some days I am deflated. I am continuing to learn daily. It is an inspiring and humbling process.
This is probably the last chance I will have to update Ukingo ya hadithi yangu until I return home on May 3. Thanks to all for travelling with me through this medium. Thank you all for your prayers. Thanks for Katrina for keeping everyone updated when I couldn't. I look forward to all the reunions to come. Blessings.
Bwana asifiwe! Amen!
1 comment:
You're doing homestay with the Nyiha? I'm so jealous! While I was over there, that's the language I did a project on, but the only Nyiha speaker around was Bendali...
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